In Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) communication systems, time slots are used to control use of communication channel resources, e.g., frequency bandwidth. Communication between any two or more devices is allocated to designated time slots, but in so doing, devices need to be powered up sufficiently to receive data during the designated time slots. However, it is possible that a device may have no data to send at any particular time. Thus, if more time slots are allocated, the bandwidth is augmented, but the power consumption of a recipient device is wasted in an idle listening mode anticipating reception of data in designated time slots.
A device may spend more energy in the idle listening mode (ultimately to determine there is no data to be received) than it spends for actual transmission. In other words, in the absence of traffic, battery life is still depleted, and the greater the maximum bandwidth, the faster it depletes battery life in an idle listening mode.